Spondylolysis in the past: A case study of hunter-gatherers from Southern Patagonia

SUBY, JORGE ALEJANDRO; GARCÍA LABORDE, PAMELA; GARCÍA LABORDE, PAMELA; GUICHÓN, RICARDO ANIBAL; DÁNGELO DEL CAMPO MANUEL D.; GUICHÓN, RICARDO ANIBAL; DÁNGELO DEL CAMPO MANUEL D.; SUBY, JORGE ALEJANDRO

International Journal of Paleopathology

ELSEVIER

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2017 vol. 19 p. 1 - 17

1879-9817

Spondylolysis is a fracture of the pars interarticularis, the portion of the neural arch that lies between the superiorarticular facets and the inferior articular facets. Clinical evidence has suggested repetitive trauma to be the mostprobable cause, even though morphological weakness of the vertebra is probably also involved. Prevalence isbetween 3% and 8% in modern populations, while in archaeological samples it varies from 0% to 71.4%.Considering that very little data about this condition is available in past populations from the southern extremeof South America, the aim of this paper is to analyze the spondylolysis in a human skeletal sample from SouthernPatagonia and, at the same time, to explore the prevalence of spondylolysis in archaeological contexts aroundthe world to gain a better understanding of the results presented here. The Southern Patagonian skeletal seriesanalyzed here showed a prevalence of 20%, with lower prevalence in the pre contact sample (11.1%) than in thecontact period (23.1%). Skeletons from the Salesian Mission ?Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria? showed a higherprevalence (25%) than the sample of skeletal remains recovered from outside the mission (20%), suggesting thatchanges in lifestyle of hunter-gatherers during contact could be implicated in the development of spondylolysisin this sample. A worldwide survey displays a wide range of prevalence figures in American and Asian samplesand low diversity between African and European populations. Hunter-gatherers from Southern Patagoniashowed similar values to those observed in other American samples.